This chapter contains descriptions of surgery and torture.
Quickly rending herself invisible, Jaime flew through the sky following Delta through Miami. Having stretched her Mind out, she was actually following Delta's life sign and emotions. And she could feel that the ginger was getting more and more highly strung as she ran. Well, if you could call it running. It was more like a limping stumble and the life sign was more and more erratic, likely to be struggling considering she hadn't ran or moved that quickly in three and a half years. It was a bit reckless to be honest.
Jaime managed to track down Delta to Miami Beach, and by this time the life sign was struggling in a serious condition. So she landed on the beach a few feet away from Delta, becoming visible while watching the other female crouching on the sand and coughing away, even having a hard time catching her breath. Sighing, Jaime just shook her head in exasperation.
Conjuring up a bottle of Lucozade, as well as a Breathe Easy bag, she approached Delta and crouched down beside her, reaching out to rub her back, only to stop momentarily. "Tha' wasnae very clever was it!" She spoke up so that Delta knew she was there, though she could already feel waves of stand offish emotions washing off her. "Ye were hardly goin' tae be in the same condition as ye were three and a half years ago."
Jaime handed the Lucozade and the bag over to Delta. The ginger took them after awhile, even though she seemed to recover quickly. She sat down on the sand and sipped at the energy drink. Jaime sat down with her and watched her carefully, waiting.
"I just needed tae get out," Delta croaked, hugging the bottle of energy drink close to her body. "I had a bad dream, been a lot of them…woke up and had no idea where I was…how did I even get here?" She rambled.
Because Delta still had her hoodie up, Jaime couldn't see the expression on her face. Though she could feel a myriad of emotions washing off her. When she reached out to push the hood down, the younger female flinched away with a whimper.
The Scots-girl sighed, feeling a growing anger bubbling away. Whatever else they had done to this strong Minded, independent female to turn her into a whimpering shivering mess, made her want to go back there and sort them all out Fire-Bird style. Seconds later, Jaime shook her head. Thoughts like that were not needed right now. "It's okay, ye're safe now," Jaime soothed the ginger. "No-one else is goin' tae hurt you." She reached out once again and pushed the hood down.
Delta's ginger hair had long since dried and now it was its usual flyaway self. Her face was pale except for her cheeks which were mottled with red patches. There were dark patches underneath her eyes that Jaime hadn't noticed before, and her green eyes were red rimmed from so much crying and being in pain. Despite the energy drink she didn't look all that too good. When had Delta last eaten anyway?
Conjuring up a sandwich she knew Delta would like, which looked oddly familiar to the one she saw several hours ago, she gave it to the younger female. "Eat it slowly, yer stomach needs tae get use tae havin' actual food in it again."
Delta thanked her and nibbled quietly on the sandwich.
Jaime looked out towards the sea, at the ever present lighting up of the sky and the oncoming sunrise. Then she turned her attention back to Delta. "We rescued ye," Jaime started to explain. "And the others." She quickly added. "They're all safe too. We had tae go tae the highest authority tae find where ye were. It wasnae easy."
Delta had stopped eating and was clearly listening.
The silence between them was a tense one, as if they were waiting for each other to finish first. The ginger narrowed her eyes and it was soon followed by a sigh. "Okay, where were we?" Delta asked, continuing to stare out to sea. She couldn't bare to look at her parallel universe friend. Not if it meant having to see more of those 'I feel sorry for you' expressions. She REALLY hated those.
"Ye were in Area 51," Jaime told her. "In an underground prison." She sensed the Loop snap shut and breathed a sigh of relief, while Delta grunted and dropped her sandwich in her lap.
"That was a Paradox wasn't it?" She asked. It's closure had grated on her nerves and her senses. And it meant that Jaime knew where she had been held.
"Aye, sorry 'bout tha'," Jaime replied.
Delta became tense when she realised the older female was reading her Mind, and because she was so rusty and damaged she couldn't raise her shields back up. They were weak anyway and wouldn't have lasted. Everything about herself was broken!
For awhile they both sat in silence, listening to the rolling waves of the sea and the call of the gulls. Or at least they tried too, with Delta's Mind a completely open book, Jaime found it very hard not to be tempted to read her Mind knowing the ginger didn't like it.
"Wha' was yer bad dream 'bout?" Jaime asked. She hadn't wanted to ask such a personal question but she felt she had to get started somewhere.
In reply, Delta just closed her eyes, put her hands through her hair and shook her head.
Jaime grimaced at the reaction. "I'm sorry," she apologised again. "D'ye want tae talk 'bout it?" She asked. "Any of it?"
But Delta continued to shake her head and the grip on her hair got more intense. "I can't, I can't…" She croaked out. She began to rock back and forth, letting out little whines and whimpers. A quick flash of a memory came from the ginger, of which she was stuck in a basement, the smell was a horrible musty stink, twinned with a smell of piss and shit and blood.
And knowing this was a trigger for a PTSD attack, Jaime acted quickly, soothing the younger female until she was calm again. But now she was in an even more vulnerable state than before. "I'm sorry I asked, okay," she spoke. "It was completely impersonal!"
However, Delta shook her head. "No, don't be," she croaked back before continuing to nibble on the sandwich for awhile.
Jaime didn't push her any further and hoped she'd say something in her own time.
When most of the sandwich had been nibbled away, Delta put it down, unable to eat anymore. The sky was dark now and there'd be more people appearing on the beach soon. And the thought of that just made her feel more vulnerable. "I don't feel safe," she croaked, remembering what Jaime had said. "It just feels like they're going to come by any moment and take me back there." She shivered at the thought. "Back to endless mockery and no privacy, back to endless experiments and violations…" The ginger screwed her eyes shut and put her hands over her ears in a bid to block out the worst memories from her incarceration at Area 51, then she shook her head. That seemed to do the trick and she sighed in relief before continuing on. "And the worst thing they did was take away the best thing that's ever happened in my life. It's not fair and I just want them back!" She sobbed out and put her hands over her face.
Feeling waves of upset washing off the ginger, Jaime was a tad confused over what Delta had just said, remembering Wolfy muttering on about the same thing. "Sorry, ye lost me a wee bit. Wha' are ye talkin' 'bout?" She asked, putting her arm around the shuddering shoulders in a bid to comfort the upset ginger, ignoring the way she tensed up. "Wha' happened?" Jaime urged. "Can ye tell me?"
When Delta felt less emotional she tried to get out what she'd been talking about, but no words came out. So instead she took a hold of Jaime's hand. *You have the ability to read scars don't you?* she asked via telepathy and sensed surprise from the older female.
*Aye, of course!* Jaime replied back in the same way. *What do ye want me tae know?* She felt some hesitance from the ginger and urged her to keep going.
Letting go of Jaime's hand, Delta pulled up her hoodie and t-shirt to reveal her midsection, along with the ugly looking faded vivisection scar. Invited, Jaime reached out and touched the scar.
…Immediately she found herself back in the laboratory of the prison in Area 51. There was a lot of scientists hanging around a table discussing something apparently fascinating. In the medical surgery type room a familiar voice was effing and blinding away. She had the feeling that person was fighting for their life. When Jaime walked into that room she had to restrain herself from taking action. Not that she could anyway. She was just viewing part of a memory. It did make her very angry.
It took five soldiers to restrain Delta down on the surgery table and another two to forcibly strip of the clothes she was wearing, rendering her fully naked, all the while screaming that she was human. Something else must have happened because the memory went from Delta fighting hard to her not struggling at all, looking zoned out. It was very possible she had been drugged.
A scientist doctor was making notes, leering at poor Delta who couldn't defend herself. She was surrounded by other scientists who were obviously surgeons. And then they got started and every second of it was horrible. Poor Delta was still awake but felt no pain as old fashioned medical tools were used to open her up, blood splattering on the floor.
Covering her mouth, her eyes wide in horror, Jaime watched as they examined every organ. And then they reached the reproductive organs.
"Hello, what's this?" The scientist doctor uttered, curious.
"What is it?" One of the other scientists asked.
"The subject appears to be withchild…" Jaime gasped. "…about three to four weeks." There was silent contemplation from the scientists.
"That's well before the cut-off time for termination." One of them suggested and Jaime was disgusted that it was even mentioned. Would they do it without permission of the expectant mother?
But the scientist doctor disagreed with a shake of his head. "No, I think not," he said as Delta began to whimper, flashes of pain could be felt. "This'll provide us with the opportunity to study alien gestation and how many months it takes to go full term."
Jaime could practically feel the glee washing off the scientist.
"Further study is needed once the offspring is born. I'm done here, you can close it up." He finished. And in order to 'close up' they used an overhead laser. The screaming and pain coming from Delta was too much…
So much so that Jaime had to pull her hand away with a pained gasp. Disorientated, the Scots-girl saw she was back on the beach before turning her attention to Delta. She had lowered her top and her arms were folded in a protective way as she looked away, fearful of any scrutiny as well as feeling embarrassed.
"Ye were pregnant?" A stunned Jaime questioned, her Mind going into overdrive. "Ye weren't assaulted were ye?" She asked and thankfully Delta shook her head. That was good, it likely meant that the father was Ed Dingle. Though she had seen no sign of a child around the prison. "Did ye lose it?" Was her next question. When Delta shook her head, it really began to get Jaime worried. There was now a missing child situation. "Wha' happened?" She further asked.
In reply, Delta once again lifted up her hoodie top and leaned backwards.
Now Jaime could see another scar on the ginger's stomach, just beneath her naval. It ran straight across and the Time Lord part of her Mind told her it was more commonly known as a Caesarian. Once again, Jaime reached out to touch the scar, and once more she found herself back at the underground prison.
…Only she was in a different area now, that looked a bit like a hospital ward. She heard screaming and saw a medical team surrounding one of the beds. When she moved closer to the bed she saw that it was Delta and she was full term. In fact it looked like she had swallowed an entire Planet! Also, it looked like she was struggling quite a bit. Her face was scrunched up in pain and red as a beetroot. She was sweating so much her ginger hair was wet and sticking to her forehead. And judging from the waves of feelings coming from her she was in serious pain.
Suddenly a rapid beeping of a heart monitor caught Jaime's attention and she hadn't noticed it was attached to Delta until she collapsed into a dead faint.
"Hurry! We're going to lose all three if we don't get her into surgery!" One of the nurses shouted and the bed was quickly wheeled out of the ward.
'Wait! Did she say 'all three'?' Jaime wondered.
The scene changed to the Operating Room mid-surgery. Delta was still unconscious but her heart monitor was stabilised. The lead surgeon had already opened up the ginger and was busy pulling out the…first?...baby from the womb. Despite it being smeared in stuff, Jaime could see it was male with fine ginger hair on its head. The baby boy was handed over to the nurses and within thirty seconds they had him cleaned and crying. It didn't take long until the second baby was out and Jaime could see that it also was a boy and it was also ginger. And just like the first one, this baby had an impressive set of lungs as well…
Back on the beach, Jaime pulled her hand away from the scar and stared at Delta in amazement. "Twins? Ye had twins!" She exclaimed. That meant there were TWO missing kids. And that was extremely worrying.
Delta nodded her head and went back to protecting herself.
"Did they take 'em away?" Jaime asked and saw Delta shake her head. "So wha' happened then?"
The ginger took a deep breath. "They let me keep them with me," she croaked a reply. "So I could feed them…" She hugged herself even tighter. "…but the more they grew up I knew they'd want to study my boys. So I tried to find a way out…" Jaime smiled as she realised these were the many attempted escapes that soldier had mentioned. "…only they kept catching me." Her shoulders shook as she began to get highly emotional. "They were two and a half when they finally took them away from me, as punishment. But I just continued to find ways to escape until they decided to put me in a water tank and use my Cryokinesis against me…" Delta put her hands over her face and sobbed. "And now I don't even know where they are!" She cried out.
Looking around the beach, Jaime noticed there were one or two early morning joggers out, so acting quickly she put her arm around Delta's shoulders and made them both invisible to nosy parkers. "I'm sorry, I saw no sign of yer children," Jaime told the ginger. "Maybe they were taken for adoption or fostered." She grimaced when Delta's crying only got worse, realising she'd only put her foot in it.
"They feel so far away its hard to tell where they might be. I just want them back so much!" Delta continued to sob. "I'm not sure I'll ever be the same again. I feel even more less than human I should be after the way they treated me. I was broken before, but when they took me they shattered me into a thousand tiny pieces and ground me up into dust." As she flopped into Jaime's lap it was like a dam had burst open. The tears became an endless flow as she outright cried. Jaime tried her best to comfort the upset ginger, but it wasn't easy.
*Hey, Jaime, where are you?* J.D spoke up in her Mind. *The Doctor said you went after Delta.*.
The Scots-girl nodded. *We're at the beach,* she replied. *And the situation is much more worse than expected. Be back soon.*
And that situation was that there were two missing children. And if they were connected by a family bond then that also meant they were Half-Time Lord Hybrids with possible inherited Super-powered abilities.